﻿Hey all! Welcome to August! Yeah the banner above says "July Special" but that's just because we're letting the special continue for just a little bit longer. If you're looking for a free on-camera kit, check out the special before it's gone for good!﻿

61st ANNUAL TAB CONFERENCE AND TRADE SHOW

First up on the Dracast agenda this week is The 61st Annual Texas Association of Broadcasters Convention and Trade show. We're heading out to the Lone Star State to see some old friends, and to showcase the latest and greatest that we have to offer. A little bit of background on TAB if you don't know: The TAB Convention was formed in 1953 and since 1999 has found Austin, Texas as its permanent home. They host an annual golf tournament on Wednesday, plenty of informative seminars, a banquet, a community service awards breakfast, and an awards breakfast. Everything really is bigger in Texas!If you happen to be in the greater part of Texas and fancy yourself a great time then you should head on over to the TAB Convention and swing by our booth to say hi! We always like to meet new people in our industry and would love a chance to show you what we're all about!

THE DRACAST LED1000 vs A TRADITIONAL 650W FRESNEL﻿At Dracast we are proud to give our customers a quality product and great service that we can confidently stand behind. Not only that but we go to full lengths to make sure you get the product knowledge to make your purchasing decisions a little bit easier. One question we're often asked is: How do your lights compare to traditional lighting solutions? In this week's video we're featuring a comparison of a 650 watt Fresnel and Dracast's own LED1000. You'll get a side by side comparison of both lights and their specs from Rodney Miller.So check out the video here and remember to subscribe to our Youtube channel and post comments on what other videos you would like to see.﻿

﻿Well that's it for this week! Swing by and say hi at TAB, and if you aren't in the Texas area, but still want a glimpse of the Lone Star State, then make sure to check us out on social media (links below) because we always post a bunch of stuff when we travel. As always, thank for reading, and we'll see you next week!

We finally finished it. For the last couple of months a few of us here at the Dracast office have been working hard on a brand new green screen production studio. We decided that since we shoot so many product photos and blog videos each week, that having to set up and tear down equipment again and again was becoming tiresome and time consuming. So, after about 73 trips to the hardware store, and more than a handful of late nights equipped with our tool belts, we can finally say that we've finished.

Make sure to check out the video below to see the studio in action! (Or click here)

Now, this was a project that had been on our to-do list for quite a while. We didn't just jump into it blindly. There was a lot of homework and preparation that had to be done before we ever lifted a hammer or hung a lighting grid. With that in mind, I've decided to do a quick write up touching on a few of the details of our project, and throw in a few tips about working with green screens.

I know that just like us, a lot of people in our industry have a studio like this somewhere on their to-do list, and before you get to the day that you break ground on yours, I recommend that you take the time to get your hands on all the helpful information you can! It'll save you a lot of unnecessary trips to the hardware store!

THE WALL

We we're fortunate enough to start with a large empty room with high ceilings. So our first order of business was to cut the size of the room in half with a partition wall that would eventually become our green screen cyc wall. For this we used 12' 2x4 wall studs to frame a 12'H x 20'W partition.

To reinforce the wall and make it sure it was sturdy enough, we drove plenty of nails through the bottom plate into the concrete foundation and used high tension guy wires to secure the top plate to studs in the high ceiling. This was an especially important step since this wall is technically a free-standing structure.

After our frame was finished, we covered it in 4x8 drywall sheets. You'll notice in the picture that the drywall sheets are turned vertically (rather than the normal horizontal way). This was done to strategically place the visible seams that we would have to cover up in our next step. (More on this later.)

Once the drywall was in place, we applied mud and tape to all of the seams as well as any spots where there was damage to the sheet rock. We let the mud dry overnight, and then sanded down the dried mud leaving us with a beautiful (mostly) seamless, smooth wall.

After a few of rounds of touch up mud and sanding, we were ready for paint.

THE PAINT

Once we were sure that we weren't going to be able to make our wall any smoother or more seamless, we were ready to start painting.

The first order of business was to make sure that we selected the correct green for our green screen. Technically speaking, you can use any color you want for chroma keying (which is why you sometimes see blue screens). Bright green however, is typically used because it has the greatest contrast with skin tones, and if you're going to start removing colors from your shot, you don't want to start accidentally removing parts of people too!

This is actually the main reason why we wanted our wall as smooth as possible. When you start "keying out" colors in video editing, you want to be working with the narrowest color range possible. The more variations and shades of your color that you have, the harder it's going to be to get it all out of the shot. So basically, every bump and lump in your wall (or every wrinkle in your fabric) means a shadow when a light hits it. Every shadow means another shade of green, which means more work in the editing room!

We had looked up specialty "green screen paint" on Google, but it was definitely the most expensive option, and there didn't seem to be much difference between it and a can of Behr indoor flat. By the way, the "flat" part is important! If you're using a paint with any amount of gloss to it you're going to end up with massive hotspots and a huge amount of color spill (where green reflects or "spills" out onto whatever it is you're shooting). So remember to use flat/matte green paint.

So, with all of this in mind, we went to the hardware store and compared several different green paint samples looking for that perfect shade of green. In the end, what worked for us was a roll of "Island Lime Green Duck Tape". Seriously. I grabbed a roll off the shelf and asked the paint guy if he could color match it. The color code on the can is there on the right, so if you need an awesome shade of "green screen green" there you have it! It's worked out great for us!

THE CYC WALL AND FLOOR

Once our wall had its first coat of primer and paint, it was time to add in the cyc wall. If you don't know what a cyc wall is, it's basically a curve that erases the point where the wall meets the floor and creates a smooth, seamless transition instead of a visible corner.

There are a million tutorial videos on how to build your own cyc wall that are already on YouTube, so I won't go into the fine details of construction here. We used curved cutouts of 3/8" plywood spaced out at 2 feet and framed with 2x4 boards. After that was finished, we laid a very thin MDF board over the frame and sanded both edges to a taper. Finally, another round of mud and tape and sanding made the whole thing ready for a second coat of paint.

We rolled the paint out from the bottom edge of the cyc wall onto the concrete floor several feet in order to give ourselves more distance from the back wall. This brings up another important point: When you're working with a green screen you're going to have color spill, you can't avoid it. You can however minimize it by distancing your subject roughly 8 (or more) feet away from your screen. If your screen isn't big enough for this just remember you can always use a "garbage matte" when editing.

THE LIGHTING AND GRID

The first step in lighting our green screen was giving ourselves a framework to hang lights from. We decided against using something as heavy-duty as box truss and instead went with the DIY hardware store solution. We purchased 1.5" black pipe cut and threaded for the dimensions of our studio. The pipes were connected using t-joints and elbow joints and the whole grid was dropped from the ceiling by attaching threaded flanges to the beams in the ceiling. Finally, we reinforced everything by attaching redundant safety straps to every piece of hanging grid. Remember when doing something like this yourself to attach redundant safety straps to anything suspended in the air. This includes any truss or lights or whatever. Don't risk it.

Once the grid was in place and we had something to hang lights from we got right to work. Working from the green screen backward, we started with four Dracast LED2000 Bi-Color lights directly above the green screen pointed down. This gives us a nice bright, even wash on our wall.

Remember those drywall sheets that were hung vertically instead of horizontally earlier? Well these first four lights are why we did that. Shadows are a lot easier to work with when they're parallel to your light source. Perpendicular seams are a lot less forgiving when you're trying to make them completely invisible. In fact, if you look closely at the picture on the right, you can make out the horizontal seams, but not the vertical ones. It's a small detail, but worth pointing out.

Next, we added a row of six Dracast LED2000 Bi-Color lights at a distance of roughly 8-10 feet from the wall. This effectively filled in any shadows that were left on the wall, and also provides some fill lighting for your subject as well.

Finally, we added six Dracast LED2000 Bi-Color lights at a distance of approximately 20+ feet from the green screen. These lights don't serve to light the screen, rather, they are key and fill lights for the subject.

When all was said and done, we used sixteen LED2000s set at 4400K color temperature, running on a generic 512 DMX controller.

FINISHING TOUCHES

With the hard work behind us, all we had left were cosmetic improvements. We added modular foam flooring tiles so that we weren't walking on bare concrete floor. We threw in some tables, chairs, and a bunch of camera and grip gear so that we'd be well equipped for any shoot. We probably still have several improvements left to make that we're not even aware of yet...but that's how it always goes.

The bottom line is: Projects like this take a bit planning, and a lot of work. More work than we had anticipated actually! But, with the right information and the right tools at your disposal, you'll be better equipped and better prepared to check this project off your list too. I hope that reading about our experience was helpful. If it was, pass it along to others that might want to take a look.

Also, if you need help with green screens, and of course, lighting, visit our website or call our office at 408.229.9222. We'd love to help.

This month at Dracast we've decided to have a little fun with social media! So, over the next couple of weeks we'll be tweeting a daily link to our June Light Kit Special (see below). If you would be so awesome as to retweet our promo tweet, you'll be entered to win one of our hottest new lights of 2014: The Dracast LED160A. These newly redesigned 160s were released at NAB 2014 and the response was so positive that preorders had sold out before the show ended.

At the end of the month we'll choose one retweeter and send him/her a brand new LED160A. So, help us spread the word about our June special, and we'll enter you into our end-of-the-month drawing once for every time you retweet us! Thanks for supporting us and good luck!

Our light kit promotion in May was so successful, that we've decided to continue the special into June. Due to popular demand, we've changed the special just a bit, and this month we're offering 10 percent off the Panel Series lights in your Dracast kit. So, for the month of June, when you purchase a kit of two or more panels at Dracast.com and use the promo code junepromo at checkout we'll include:

10 percent off your Dracast Panel Series Lights

FREE SKB iSeries hard travel case ($399 value)

FREE Light stands ($40 value each)

FREE Shipping in the U.S.A.

Limit - One free case per kit, and one free stand per light.

THE NEW DRACAST FRESNEL SERIES

After more than a year in development, we're proud to announce that we've released the Dracast Fresnel Series. Make sure to check out the video below to watch a hands-on overview of the Fresnel1000.

In The Spotlight: Find Dracast at these resellers!

Band Pro Film & Digital, Inc. specializes in products and solutions for professional filmmakers and videographers. From our offices in Atlanta, GA; Burbank, CA; New York City, NY; Munich, Germany; and Tel Aviv, Israel; Band Pro offers the highest level of knowledge and expertise along with the finest equipment and accessories available. ﻿

Since opening our doors over 2 decades ago, EVS has been supplying the creative and professional filmmakers industry with the tools needed for production. If you are looking for a supplier to offer real world production knowledge to your purchasing and rentals decision making, look no further, there is a difference in EVS!

﻿﻿Upcoming news about Dracast﻿﻿﻿

It was time for some spring cleaning over here at Dracast. We took a long hard look at our website, and decided that it needed a bit of updating. So over the last couple of weeks, we've worked hard to create a totally new user experience from the ground up. We cleaned up a lot of the clutter that had gathered on our pages, and aimed at creating a site that is clean, secure, and easy to use, yet is packed with great content. We're pleased with the results, what do you think?

2014 LIGHT KIT SPECIAL!﻿﻿We're kicking off the launch of our new website with a really awesome special! If you've been thinking about purchasing a new light kit, this is pretty much the best time to do it. Because for a limited time, when you buy a light kit with two or more Dracast LED lights, you get the following accessories thrown in...for FREE

Batteries - V-Mount or Gold Mount (One for each light!)

SKB Travel Case - The iSeries 2918. (i.e. The kind our staff uses)

Light Stands - To really complete the package

So to put it another way, if you click here and purchase, say, a three light Dracast LED kit, we're including over $1200 worth of accessories...for free. We're not going to do this one for very long, (for obvious reasons) so make sure you get on this soon!

CINEGEAR 2014

Its been about a months since we got back from NAB, and it's time for us to get out there again! In a couple of weeks, on June 6th and 7th to be exact, we'll be at the Cinegear Expo at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. We'd love to see you out there, so make sure to swing by and say hello. We'll be doing raffles and giveaways, so you might just win some cool prizes too. We'll be at booth number S313 in Stage 32﻿﻿

﻿JUST A COUPLE MORE THINGS...This week we have a couple of summer interns starting at Dracast. Elizabeth and Shannon. They swear that they're "social media experts"... so make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can watch how an "expert" does it.

Lastly - Check out the video below! When we were at NAB, the awesome guys at Sunbuggy Fun Rentals invited the Dracast staff to come out and race their dune buggies in the desert...at night...using our lights to light up the track! It was a blast!

See you next week!

Dracast﻿

﻿ALSO MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT:﻿

﻿"Are you guys available on B&H?"

The staff at Dracast has been asked this question about a billion times over the last few years. Well, as of this week we can finally tell you that YES, Dracast LED lights ARE available ﻿﻿at ﻿www.bhphotovideo.com. ﻿Thanks for asking!﻿

﻿Well, our light kit special is a hit! It's true that good news travels fast, so thanks to those of you who have tweeted, posted, or otherwise shared the news of our current special. We really appreciate it!

Also, there were some people who were having issues ordering their light kit on our website last week. Well, simply put, that was our bad. The problem is fixed now, and the website ordering process is good to go!﻿

﻿For those of you that don't know: For the month of March, LED1000 Light Kits will be on sale for 10% off...but that's just the start. In addition to getting a nice chunk of a discount, we're going to be including free light stands with each kit, AND an SKB injection molded travel case as well...for free!

The promotion applies to 2, 3, and 4 LED1000 Light Kits. If you're interested, or know someone who is, click here and check it out for yourself! This is pretty much the best promotion that we've done on light kits, and they're limited to quantities on hand, so if you're looking for the right time to get a Dracast kit, this is it!﻿

﻿Also, check out the video below if you want to see one of these light kits in action. Last week, we were invited to do another photo shoot of some incredible automobiles. This time we had the privilege of shooting at Los Gatos Luxury Cars. They have an amazing collection of Ferraris, Bugattis, Aston Martins, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis. Make sure you check out the video below!﻿

﻿In the meantime, we're full steam ahead getting ready for NAB 2014. We're planning on making it our best show yet. So if you're planning on being at NAB, make sure to put us on your list of booths to visit. And lastly, make sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We're always posting pictures of stuff going on around here!

See you next week!

Dracast﻿

﻿Also make sure to check out:

We met a lot of great folks during our trip to London a couple of weeks ago. Some of them happened to be the people from CVP Group. We're happy to report that Dracast will soon be available in the UK at www.cvp.com. So if you're in the UK, and you're looking for Dracast lights, now you know where to find them! Go check out their site! ﻿

﻿This week Dracast is starting a brand new special for the month of March! For the entire month, LED1000 Light Kits will be on sale for 10% off...but that's just the start. In addition to getting a nice chunk of a discount, we're going to be including free light stands with each kit, AND an SKB injection molded travel case as well...for free!

﻿This is pretty much the best promotion that we've done on light kits, and they're limited to quantities on hand, so if you're looking for the right time to get a Dracast kit, this is it!﻿

﻿Also, check out the video below if you want to see one of these light kits in action. The other day, we were invited to do a photo shoot with a bunch of really awesome classic cars. Didn't get to drive them though...we'll save that video for next time!

In the meantime, we're getting ready to head to the other side of the world again. Next week, we'll be at the CABSAT show in Dubai. ﻿

If you're going to be at the show, make sure to swing by and say hello. If you just care to see some of what we're doing, check us out on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. ﻿We always post pictures from our trips.

See you next week!

Dracast﻿

﻿Also make sure to check out:

We met a lot of great folks during our trip to London last week. Some of them happened to be the people from CVP Group. We're happy to report that Dracast will soon be available in the UK at www.cvp.com. So if you're in the UK, and you're looking for Dracast lights, now you know where to find them! Go check out their site!﻿